For our last post of 2013, we wanted to wish some very special kids a very Merry Christmas...

Earlier this week, a group of Googlers had the chance to visit the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and spread some holiday cheer to young patients and their families.

Raising donations through a slate of fun (and tasty) holiday-inspired activities, including a homemade bake sale and ever-popular hot chocolate cart, our Toronto team donned their Santa hats and delivered more than $10,000 worth of toys to the inspiring kids at SickKids.

Toys by the tree at Google Toronto

Our thanks go out to the incredible team at SickKids for the work they do year-round for children in Toronto and around the world. We wish each of them – and the families and kids they serve – a warm and wonderful holiday season.

And on behalf of Google Canada, we would like to wish everyone a very happy holiday, and we’ll see you in 2014!

From controversy at Toronto’s City Hall to “sourtoe cocktails,” “twerking” and doing the Harlem Shake, Google Canada’s Year End Zeitgeist offers a uniquely Canuck perspective on the year's major events and hottest trends based on searches from Canada.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford made headlines around the world and topped this year’s trending searches here in Canada. The untimely passing of Glee star and Calgary-native Cory Monteith and the celebration of Nelson Mandela’s life captured Canadians’ attention, as did the news of the Royal Baby’s arrival across the pond. There were over 1.7 million videos about the Harlem Shake uploaded to YouTube this year, and this Internet meme had no trouble dancing its way into the Top 10 Trending Searches in Canada and around the world. Here’s the full list:

Canada’s Top Trending Searches for 2013

Rob Ford

Cory Monteith

Paul Walker

Tim Bosma

Boston Marathon

Nelson Mandela

Royal Baby

North Korea

Harlem Shake

Lac Mégantic

As we get ready to turn the page to 2014, we invite you to take a global journey through the biggest moments from the past 12 months in our Year in Review video:

Looking at the list of the Top 10 Trending Canadians, in 2013 we were star-struck by Commander Chris Hadfield and celebrated the amazing achievements of author and Nobel laureate, Alice Munro. Canada also lost two legends of Canadian music, Stompin’ Tom Connors and Rita MacNeil who clearly left their mark in Canadian culture.

Top Trending Canadians for 2013

Rob Ford

Cory Monteith

Tim Bosma

Chris Hadfield

Rehtaeh Parsons

Rita MacNeil

Jarome Iginla

Stompin’ Tom Connors

Alice Munro

Alan Thicke

“Twerk” got an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary this year, so it’s hardly surprising that “what is twerking” and “how to twerk” topped Canada’s What Is and How To lists in 2013. The raunchy dance set the internet on fire after Miley Cyrus performed it at the MTV Music Video Awards in August this year, but wasn’t quite enough to make Miley the top trending celebrity in Canada...

To find out who was Canada’s top trending celebrity of 2013 – along with the top trending movies, athletes, diets, and most searched federal politicians – check out the complete Canadian lists at google.ca/zeitgeist.

Canadian Zeitgeist Lists

Searches

Celebrities

Canadians

Federal Politicians

Canadian Sports Teams

Athletes

Technology

Musician

Movies

TV Shows

Recipes

Cocktails

Diet

How to…

What is…

To view these lists, head over to google.ca/zeitgeist. Aside from Canadian data, the site showcases over 1,000 top-ten lists across pop culture, sports, music, politics, news, and more. It’s global, spanning over 75 countries. You can check out global search trends, compare terms using interactive data visualizations, and watch the annual Zeitgeist video.

When 50% of online Canadian adults own a smartphone, and 51% reported having a phone, tablet or a PC with them while they watch TV, behaviours change.

Canadians search, shop, share, and play across multiple devices and screens, but just how frequently this has been happening has been unclear until now. A new study from Google (conducted by Ipsos, an independent market research firm) sheds light on multi-screen behavior in Canada with important insights for performance and brand marketers.

Conducted between October 15 – November 1, 2013, and available on our Think Insights page, the study covered over 2000 respondents across Canada and discovered two key trends: simultaneous multi-screening with an impact on television and sequential multi-screening with an impact on shopping.

Here are just some of our key findings:

Multiscreen behavior among smartphone users is widespread and with the expected rapid growth of smartphones & tablets, 'multi-screening' – using more than one screen at once – is only going to grow.

Among Smartphone users, most time spent consuming media today is screen-based, on Computer, Smartphone, Tablet or TV

Canadians think using devices simultaneously can enhance the TV viewing experience, but can also be a distraction. TV itself is losing its ability to command our full attention.

Smartphones play a critical role in the path to purchase process. They are used for product reviews, store location information, inventory checks and purchases – especially during the holidays!

Portable screens allow us to move easily from one device to another to achieve a task. In some cases, smartphone users will begin researching on their smartphone and continue the shopping process or even make a purchase on a different device.

So, for all the marketers out there, here are some insights we would take away from this study:

First, the vast majority of media interactions are screen-based, so marketing strategies should no longer be viewed as “digital” or “traditional.” Businesses should understand all of the ways that people consume media, particularly digital, and tailor strategies to each channel.

Second, the prevalence of sequential usage for shopping makes it important that businesses enable customers to save their progress between devices. Saved shopping carts, “signed-in” experiences or the ability to email progress to oneself helps keep consumers engaged, regardless of device used to get to you.

Third, consumers rely on search to connect their experiences across screens. Not only should brands give consumers the opportunity to find them with search campaigns across devices, but strategies such as keyword parity across devices can ensure consumers can find the brand when resuming their search on a different device.

Fourth, when devices are used simultaneously, content viewed on one device can trigger specific behaviour on the other. If you're a business, this means you should not limit your conversion goals or "calls to action" to only the device where the content was initially displayed.

Lastly, with smartphones playing an important role in the shopping process, remember that they are equally likely to be used to drive shoppers into a store as they are to drive them to another device in order to continue or complete the purchase cycle.

A Norwegian Army Dance Troupe. An Epic Split. The Fox. And a Rap Battle with an 18th century Austrian composer.

As 2013 comes to a close, these are some of the videos, channels, and moments that shaped our year. While each annual list is unpredictable (what's up, Mr. Miley Cyrus impersonator), trending videos just get bigger each year. And with 80 percent of all views on YouTube coming from outside the U.S., the global community is driving pop culture unlike ever before.

You watched The Fox more than 275 million times, making it the top trending video of 2013. You also made it a top searched Halloween costume, and you’ll maybe even read it as a children’s book. You turned out in record-setting numbers to see Psy’s post-Gangnam Style performance. You even made more “Harlem Shake” videos than there are people in Manhattan (1.7 million videos if you’re counting).

To celebrate all these moments, more than 60 top creators on YouTube got together and made a little video for everyone:

Check out the YouTube Rewind 2013 Channel for even more top lists of the year from around the world, and stay tuned at Google.com/zeitgeist next week for Google's annual look at the people, places and events that captured the world's attention this year.

Do you run a small gallery and would like people to be able to dive into the hidden depths of your artworks with a powerful zoom? Perhaps you’ve launched an online app and gallery on a mission to discover new artists and photographers all over the world, like Olivier Berger who started Wondereur online gallery. Or are you an artist like and want to show the evolution of your work but are not sure you have the technical expertise?

Help is now at hand with Google Open Gallery, which launches today. For the past few years, we've worked with museums around the world to make their collections available on the Google Cultural Institute. Now, we’ve opened up the technologies behind this project so that anyone with cultural content can publish it, creating exhibitions that tell engaging stories on their own website.

Google Open Gallery helps you to create a beautiful experience for people to view your collection, at the click of a button. We’ll host your content and give you access to our technology at no cost to you or your organisation. It’s pretty simple—just upload images, add video, Street View imagery and text, interweaving your story among the images to create an exhibition that will truly engage your visitors.

Posted by Robert Tansley, Google Open Gallery Product Manager & Laurent Gaveau, Head of The Lab at the Cultural Institute

Which Canadian politician keeps a Beatles mug on his desk? Which party leader’s office features a fresco of an angel modeled on William Lyon Mackenzie King’s mother? And where can you find the best view of Canada’s capital? The answers to all these questions are now in Google Maps!

Through the unique panoramic lens of Google Street View, for the first time you can explore the Prime Minister’s Office, find the secret door in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, and marvel at the ornate Memorial Chamber or the views from the Peace Tower observation deck.

In July we launched Street View imagery of Canada’s Parliament Hill, giving Canadians a chance to go online and experience the places that serve as the iconic backdrop of Canadian politics, including the House of Commons, the Red Chamber of the Senate and the Library of Parliament. Today we are thrilled to announce the addition of several historic sites within Parliament Hill’s Centre Block, including a few spots that take you behind the scenes, where even a public tour won’t go.

The Memorial Chamber is dedicated to the memory of Canadians who have died in military service. The Peace Tower was constructed by a nation grateful for peace, while the Memorial Chamber is a permanent reminder of conflict’s precious cost.

Take a trip up the Peace Tower to the Observation Deck. The Peace Tower is a living memorial to the Peace of 1918 and to the sixty-six thousand Canadians who died in the First World War. The Observation Deck provides a spectacular view of Canada’s capital city.

If you are like many Canadians you have already started researching online to kick off your holiday shopping, and with Black Friday and Cyber Monday now a permanent part of the shopping landscape – this weekend is expected to be a busy one both online and in stores.

Can you believe that searches for Black Friday terms are actually surpassing boxing day? Nearly 60 per cent of Canadians are now going online to find out about Black Friday and Cyber Monday and believe them to be the most influential of the holiday shopping days.

So, who are the lucky people we’re shopping for? It may be no surprise that 95% of us are shopping for our family – and fully 50% of Canadians are shopping for that perfect toy to put under the tree to give Santa a hand in fulfilling holiday wishes.

Over the past week, we saw Canadians searching these top 10 toys for their wish lists:

Inspired by the upcoming motion picture "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” “Journey through Middle-earth” brings the locations and characters from the movie trilogy to life with a mix of modern web technologies. It was developed by North Kingdom in collaboration with Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures.

Your adventure starts on a beautiful, interactive map of Middle-earth. Zoom in to explore Trollshaw Forest, Rivendell and Dol Guldur (with more locations to come in the next few weeks). Click on each one to learn its history and meet the characters who inhabit it, or dive further to test your wits on a unique survival challenge.

The immersive 3D graphics in “Journey through Middle-earth” were built with CSS3 and WebGL, which you might recognize from previous Chrome Experiments. But “Journey through Middle-earth” is the first Chrome Experiment designed to bring this beautiful, 3D experience to mobile, thanks to support for WebGL in Chrome for Android on devices with high-end graphics cards.

The rich audio effects and sound manipulation are delivered through the Web Audio API, which is now supported on both Chrome for Android and Chrome for iPhone and iPad. Although WebGL isn’t supported on iOS, Chrome users can still experience most of “Journey through Middle-earth” on their iPhones and iPads. We can’t wait to see what sort of rich experiences developers will build as modern web technologies become available on more types of devices.

Cross-posted from the Official Android Blog. In Canada, you can find terrific news content from sources including The National Post, Toronto Star, CBC News & Sports, Canada.com, Huffington Post Canada, Maclean's, Chatelaine, Reader's Digest Canada, Canadian Living, House & Home, iVillage Canada, Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, among many more.

Staying up on the news can be a daunting task. You have to go to a different website or app for each of your favorite magazines, newspapers and blogs. One place to read and discover all of this would be a lot simpler.

Today we’re launching Google Play Newsstand, a new app for your Android phone or tablet which brings together all of your favorite news sources in one experience. Newsstand puts the news you care about most front and center and presents stories that interest you based on your tastes. The more you read the better it will get. You can subscribe to magazines, newspapers, blogs and news sites and we’ll format and optimize them all for reading on your tablet or phone. With the swipe of a finger, you can browse full length articles, with beautiful images, audio and video right inside the app. You can access these articles even when you’re offline or bookmark them to read later.

Google Play Newsstand offers more than 1,900 free and paid, full length publications that you can subscribe to or follow. Some of these include:

Newspaper Subscriptions: Full-length content from some of the world’s top newspapers including The Australian, The Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, The National Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Magazines: Hundreds of HD magazines like Better Homes & Gardens, The Economist, Esquire, Fast Company, Forbes, Game Informer, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Shape, TIME, Vanity Fair and WIRED, from publishers like American Media Inc., Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, TIME Inc., and more.

If you’re in the US, Canada, UK or Australia, the Google Play Magazines app will be upgraded to Google Play Newsstand over the next few days. In all other countries, you can download the Play Newsstand app for your Android phone or tablet from Google Play. If you’re a Google Currents user, you can upgrade to Play Newsstand by downloading the new app. You’ll find all of your favorite news sources will be transferred and ready to read the minute you open it.

Google Play is all about bringing you great content on your phone and tablet. No matter what your interests, there’s something for everyone in Newsstand.

Editor’s Note: Today’s guest blog post is from Michael White who works in the External Relations Branch at Parks Canada and leads the Agency’s collaboration with Google Maps.One the best things about working at Parks Canada is the opportunity to share our fantastic national parks and national historic sites with Canadians and people around the world. And that’s what makes the collaboration between Parks Canada and Google Maps so exciting. Today, we’re inviting you to explore Canada’s cultural and natural heritage through the unique panoramic lens of Google Street View. From the dramatic mountain ranges of Banff National Park to the fortifications of the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site, it’s now possible to enjoy a virtual visit to some of Canada’s most iconic places.

Throughout the spring and summer of 2013, the Google Maps team traveled to over 70 Parks Canada locations across the country. Using Street View cars and the newly introduced Trekker backpack, the Google team was able to drive the roads and hike the trails that take you deep into Canada’s majestic national parks. Plus, they were able to go inside the rooms and corridors of many national historic sites.

The first place the Google Maps team visited was the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site in Nova Scotia. The fortress marks the 300th anniversary of its founding this year, and we’re thrilled to celebrate its birthday by opening up its historic gates and letting the world virtually explore this compelling place through Street View and Google Maps. Walk up and down the village streets, hike along trails inside and outside of the fortress walls and check out the huge battlements.

The Google Trekker collects imagery of the historic Fortress of Louisbourg

Explore Canada’s National Parks and Historic SitesFrom planning a summer vacation to augmenting classroom lesson plans, the partnership between Parks Canada and Google will better connect Canadians to the amazing places and geography that defines this country. To take a Street View tour of a Parks Canada location, simply drag the “Pegman” over the map to reveal the blue-coloured Street View trajectories now ready for you to explore.

A Street View stroll through in L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site

Next year Google and Parks Canada will continue to work together to document additional national heritage places across Canada. In the meantime, it is my pleasure to welcome you to Canada’s national parks and national historic sites now ready for you to explore and enjoy on Google Maps.

My family had a small Canadian Tire franchise back in the day when your local Canadian Tire store was no more than a corner store, with a thousand products – hockey sticks to tire rims – jammed floor to ceiling on shelves so narrow you couldn’t squeeze past the next shopper.

I remember the day we received product catalogues on microfiche. That innovation dramatically reduced the time it took to look up product information to about... 5 minutes. Can you imagine waiting 5 minutes to get the results for a product search?

Today, the Internet is redefining the game for small businesses everywhere. Ninety-seven percent of Canadians who use the Internet—pretty much all of us—look online for local products and services. So it should come as no surprise that the impact on businesses of being online is huge.

Take for example The Scottish Lion, a purveyor of tartans, kilts and Highland wear in Halifax, Nova Scotia since 1972. 40 years is a good, long run for any business. But like many Canadian businesses, the economic downturn of the past few years hit it hard.

Innis Campbell, their managing director, described trying to weather the downturn like “being taken out at the knees.” But today, The Scottish Lion has become a thriving online business, crediting their investment in the digital space for turning the business around when others might simply have folded their tent.

It’s a challenge faced by many Canadian businesses – of all sizes – but the clear message is you can be a business of any size, in any part of the country, and succeed online.

It’s because of stories like The Scottish Lion, and other online success stories like Cassidy’s Flowers in Newmarket, Rampes & Balcons in Saint-Sauveur, Yogacara Studios in Whistler, and Tourism Canmore, that we’re proud to recognize five great Canadian communities with a 2013 Google eTown Award.

2013 Google eTown Award Winners

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Saint-Sauveur, Québec

Newmarket, Ontario

Canmore, Alberta

Whistler, British Columbia

We worked with independent research firm IPSOS to analyze the online strength of local businesses in cities and towns across Canada. The winning cities range from rural communities to large city centres, from popular ski resorts to fast-growing suburban towns. In each, small businesses are using the web to grow and thrive in today’s increasingly connected world.

We hope these “digital capitals” are an inspiration to cities and businesses throughout Canada of what can be accomplished by embracing the opportunities of the web.